After two years and lots of patience one of our little foster mares, Spice, has been adopted along with another one of her acquaintances from Spirit Horse Equine Rescue, Copper. She arrived frightened of everything (including people), a scrawny youngster and left as a beautiful, outgoing, confident mare. I was so proud of her when she got right into the horse trailer to leave. We will really miss her but she has a great opportunity to help others as she is being adopted by someone who does Life Coaching and Equine Assisted Coaching. Her “sister” Sugar is still here and actually is doing just fine without her. Hopefully she’ll come out of her shell more as time goes on but she has always been more cautious/wary than Spice so she may end up being a “permanent foster” here.

Sugar and Spice, our foster ponies/mini horses, would love to have permanent homes. They enjoy attention and both come up to the fence immediately when people come to visit. Spice can be haltered and lead around, stands nicely for the farrier and can be touched pretty much anywhere if you move slowly.

Sugar is gaining more confidence but still hasn’t had the halter actually fastened on her, I can slip it over her nose but that’s it so far. She is very bright and will take direction from me without being haltered including getting on the pedestal which is pretty amazing considering how fearful she was a year ago.

The best thing for them would be to go to a home with patience who does not put pressure on them. They can be separated and adopted separately (which actually might be best). They do fine with regular sized horses as well as with our mini donkeys so they could be a pasture mate for a lonesome horse.

They are very easy keepers. All they require is a thin flake of hay each evening right now and a few hours of pasture during the day (they cannot be on a rich pasture 24/7 as they could develop issues such as founder or colic besides getting too fat).

They are able to be stalled but they prefer being outside so we have a “dry lot” with a run in shed for them. Even in the winter last year they preferred being out there and only were in the barn in the most bitter weather. They would make a wonderful project for a 4H member.
They are available through Spirit Horse Equine Rescue but contact me if you have questions about them.

Foster, the foal that our mare Cookie is fostering, will be 2 months old tomorrow! Cookie is doing a wonderful job mothering/raising him and he is huge now. When he first came to us he could literally walk right under Cookie’s belly. He is about 6 or 7 inches taller now.

Foster is like a clean slate waiting to be written on. He is very curious and has to taste almost anything that is in his environment. His owners come often and Foster has been introduced to many things over the last few weeks — having a halter put on and learning to be led around and walk nicely, having a towel draped and rubbed over him, having his feet picked up and cleaned, being brushed, moving away from pressure, doing a little circling, eating small amounts of grain, grass and hay, etc. He will be here until he is weaned. The timing will be whatever is best for him. IN the meantime we are really enjoying him.

Our two little foster horses, Sugar and Spice, have been with us for one year now and we have made good progress with them, especially with Spice. Today the farrier that trims the horses for Spirit Horse Equine Rescue, Stacy, came out to trim Spice. Spice was a very good girl and let Stacy trim all 4 of her hooves in about 15 minutes! Sugar is still not at the point where we can pick up and clean her hooves and Stacy said they actually look fine right now so no hurry. I don’t want to traumatize her by tranquilizing her and risk ruining the bit of trust she does have in us so we will be patient and keep working with her with the goal of having her trimmed sometime this summer.

Our paint mare, Cookie, was due to foal in late April/early May. We had originally planned the breeding 2 years ago and last year she was bred to a handsome Quarter Horse stallion, Obviously Wincredible. We were so excited when the first and then later a second ultrasound showed she was indeed expecting and thoughts of our pending new arrival are what helped us get through the long winter and Kent’s recovery from his heart attack.

As the first possible due date arrived we started checking on Cookie late at night, in the middle of the night, early in the a.m., had friends stopping by, etc. We could feel and then see the foal moving. He would get hiccoughs which shook Cookie’s whole body and made me laugh. We were so eager to finally meet him. Foal watch continued for two weeks. Early the morning of May 3rd we went down to the barn, opened the door to Cookie’s stall and there he was, a big perfect stud colt, no movement, no breathing, still damp and warm. I tried to get him breathing but no luck. Cookie was nudging him and would even touch him with her foot gently as if to wake him up. We were stunned to say the least. This just wasn’t happening after all our waiting. We called the vet who came out and said the foal may have been in the birth canal too long (because he was so big) and the cord compressed too long depriving him of oxygen. At least Cookie was basically fine except for a few small tears from the delivery. We and Cookie were heartbroken. The vet kindly suggested we move the foal outside where Cookie would be spending the day so she could grieve for him. Cookie would not leave his side and occasionally would nudge him. We were in tears.

I called a couple of people who had been helping us watch over Cookie during the day while we were at work. Shortly after that one of them got a call from a neighbor whose mare was rejecting (and trying to harm) her 4 day old foal. She had to be caught and tied up in order to let him nurse even for a short time but now she wouldn’t let them catch her. That friend suggested they call us. When I got a call asking if we would consider letting our mare foster a rejected foal I was still numb from our loss but how could I say no? So they brought the foal over.

Somehow I managed to think through how to introduce this foal to Cookie so she would accept it. I had my husband and one of the other foal’s owners carry Cookie’s dead foal out the barnyard gate and out of her sight. Once he was out there they rubbed towels on him then rubbed them on the live foal. After that they brought the live foal back through that same gate. I was holding on to Cookie. She must have heard or smelled the foal coming as she picked up her head and started whinnying as they came around the corner. I wish I could know her exact thoughts at the moment. I wonder if she thought they had revived her foal yet I think when she smelled him she knew he wasn’t hers but made the choice to accept him. He was the same color and sex as her deceased foal but even at 4 days of age he was smaller. I held onto her while he tried to nurse. He was a bit afraid of her since his own mom had bit him and picked him up by his back and flung him against a wall but once he tasted her milk he became more confident. I rubbed his back then rubbed his scent on Cookie’s nose. After that as far as she was concerned he was her foal. When she accepted him and let him nurse we all had tears streaming down our faces. This was going to be a healing thing for us and Cookie.

After a few days (and a few suggestions from my Facebook friends) the foal was named “Foster”. He is growing and thriving. His owners come over daily to visit and we are starting to halter him and teach him to lead by walking him behind Cookie. That is a 3 person job right now but getting better! He already has 4 teeth with 3 more (including a molar) coming in so he is already nibbling small amounts of grass, hay and grain.
I still have periods of tears when I spend time with him and Cookie but I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and have to accept that this was meant to be. I am glad I have a foal to watch grow and to be around even if it is for just a few months. Something good has come out of a very sad event.

I know I haven’t updated about our little foster horses in quite some time. The last couple of months progress had seemed to be slower with the two foster mares but now, in looking back, having to put them in a stall most nights since December has further helped socialize them. They have gotten used to a routine and gotten to watch the other horses and mini donkeys being handled by us. They have gotten used to all sorts of different noises and activities while inside and we’ve been able to go in the stall with them and touch/brush them more.

Two weekends ago it was a bit warmer out and my husband and I each took one of the fosters to work with. He took Sugar, the least confident of the two, into the stall and just hung out with her. He had a halter and lead rope with him and played with having her touch it and giving her treats when she did.

I took Spice, the bolder of the two, who I have been able to halter now, into another stall. I worked on teaching Spice to be tied and it went really well. She basically showed no resistance to being tied, even stepped on the rope and did not freak out. I was able to brush her and touch her all over her body and legs and even pick up her front feet and for the first time actually clean out those hooves. Then I led her out of the barn and walked around with her. Because she was doing so well I asked Kent to try walking her as he hasn’t handled her much and to my surprise she did great.

The next weekend I played with her a bit more and decided to start doing more of the Parelli 7 games with her. A good description of what these games are can be found here. Well little Spice has made huge strides in the past 2 weeks. She now moves sideways with slight pressure, has learned the “yo yo game” where you ask the horse to back away from you then come back to you and the “circle game”. She even trotted on the circling a bit and tonight we tried “the squeeze game” for the very first time — success! Tonight in the pasture she walked up to me and let me put the halter on her then lead her around the pasture even with the other horses present.

The “polite and passive persistence practiced in the proper position” (a Pat Parelli quote) has really paid off with this little horse. Yes, we could have lasso’d her, tied her to a post and forced her to accept our attention but doing it a more natural way has built her confidence and eased her fears. She is doing well enough that an adopter could take her and move on from here with her nicely. Sugar will take a bit more time but she does seek attention, allows some touching/brushing and nicely takes treats so eventually she will come around.

We are suddenly making faster progress in “taming” the foster mini/pony mares. Yesterday I was again able to groom Spice in the barn then put a halter on her and lead her around the barnyard. I also did some of the Parelli games with her — “friendly game” and “porcupine” went very well.
Today she came back into the barn and Sugar followed her into the stall where we keep some hay. I thought if I could close them in together and groom Spice in front of her then Sugar might be more accepting of some grooming. That was working until suddenly Spice decided Sugar was taking attention or hay away from her and started kicking out at Sugar with me in the stall. Note to self: do not close self in stall with 2 insecure horses in future. Fortunately I did not get hurt and Sugar wasn’t really injured either except for a little loss of hair and one small bump.
After that I just kept Sugar in the stall and brushed Spice out in the aisle. When I was done with her I returned to the stall with Sugar and actually was able to brush her a bit then started working on her tail as she seemed more accepting of that since it kept me far from her head. I got her tail totally cleared of burrs and most of her mane combed out, too. She wouldn’t let me touch her mane up closer to her ears but she would let me spray the detangler on her so hopefully I can work on it again soon. She isn’t ready to try a halter on yet since she is so head shy. See how pretty she is all cleaned up? Now I know why I liked playing with the “My Little Pony” dolls with my little sister — I was preparing for these guys!!!

If you’ve read some of my other posts about our foster mini/pony mares you know progress with them has been very slow. If you haven’t, briefly they are being fostered by us for Spirit Horse Equine Rescue and we have had them here since May. They were part of a neglect case where over 100 animals (llamas, goats, donkeys, horses, minis) were taken away from a gentleman who couldn’t care for them all. They had not been handled by humans.

The girls watch us interacting with our mini donkeys and horses and I keep hoping they can see that they are not afraid of us and it might rub off on them. It has taken a long time to even be able to touch them and they are finally accepting a little bit of brushing, Spice has had a halter on a couple of times and both will take treats from our hands.

The girls have beautiful coats with long gorgeous tails and manes that were long but due to the burdocks in them they have shortened up. I have so wanted to get a comb/brush on them but have had to be patient. Lately they will wander in and out of the barn while I am in there and I can touch them a bit more. They will even walk into a stall on their own which they were doing today when I got the brilliant idea to try squirting some mane/tail detangler on them as they walked back and forth past me. They did accept that so I tried closing a stall door on Spice (the bolder one) to see what she would do. She did not get upset so I decided to put down some hay for her to eat and see if I could touch and brush her a bit more. Much to my surprise when I started gently pulling burrs out of her mane she tolerated it. After about 30 min. I had her mane totally clear of burdocks and started in on her tail. I really didn’t expect her to tolerate such a long grooming session but she did. I even got the burrs out of her feathering on her fetlocks and got to pick up one of her feet.

So I decided to try one more thing. I got out a halter and rubbed it on her face. Then I put it on her and tied it. I let the lead rope drag and thought that would be all I could accomplish for one session. I opened the stall door with me holding the lead rope. She followed me! I got some apples and put down an apple ahead of her. She would walk to it and take a bite, then I would pick up the apple and move it ahead again. This worked great as that way she was following instead of me pulling on the rope to get her to move. After that I got her to follow me all over the barnyard before I took off the halter. This was a big day for little Spice. Now if I can get a comb/brush on Sugar’s mane and tail that would be great.

I haven’t written much about the little foster horses as progress is pretty slow. They are at a really good weight and have beautiful winter coats. Unfortunately their tails are matted with burrs and they are not at a point I can get those out. They will let me pull a burr or two out of their manes though. Today they both followed me into the barn and were poking around in there while I cleaned it up. I was able to run a brush over both of them while they were in there, even Sugar let me gently brush her with a lot of “approach and retreat” on my part. I briefly was able to touch Sugar’s lower front leg which is a first with her. They both enjoyed some apples while I was brushing them so it was a positve experience. They are getting curious about us and what we are doing and do seek out a bit of attention on their own now. Spice remains the dominant one of the pair but Sugar does not back down from her as quickly.
So that’s where we’re at after having them for 5 months — a slow progression.

The girls are sadly starting to grow their winter coats. They also have managed to get into a few burrs which is problematic when they won’t get you brush them. I worked with Spice today on that and was actually able to brush her face, neck and back with a brush and get a few burrs out of her mane. That is huge considering she’s never felt a brush before. She also let me pick up one foot briefly and I was able to lead her a few steps using the savvy string around her neck.

Sugar comes right up for attention but as soon as you reach for her and hold another object near her she retreats. I just give her a treat and pet her face briefly so at least she allows that bit of human contact. I’ll just keep working with her and hoping that soon we’ll have that breakthrough with her, too.